An Authentication Error Has Occured The Local Security Authority Cannot Be Contacted – Remote Login Without Password

Did you just encounter any of the problem listed below while trying to Enable Remote login :

Your credentials did not work.

Unable to log you on because of an account restriction.

An authentication error has occurred.
The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted
Remote Computer: xxxxx

If you try to establish a connection to a distant/ remote computer which is running a Windows Vista or Windows XP operating system in order to log on to it remotely, your attempt may be rejected.

You may get error messages saying that your credentials are not enough to logon to the system or you are not allowed to logon due to some account restriction or the connection to Local Security Authority could not be established due to an authentication error.

A simple solution to this issue is creating and assigning a password to remote computer’s user account using which you can logon to the computer remotely through Remote Desktop. This is highly advisable also due to security reasons.

However, if are unable to create a password or do not wish to assign a password for convenience, you may still logon to a Windows Vista or Windows XP system remotely via RDP using Blank/ Null Password with the help of below mentioned workaround.

Use Group Policy Editor (GPEdit.msc) or Local Security Policy to logon to a Remote Computer using Blank/ Null Password

You need to configure the remote computer so that it is enabled to accept a login via Blank/ Null Password. In order to configure a remote Windows Vista or Windows XP computer, you need to follow the below mentioned procedure.

Open the Control Panel and click on the option “Administrative Tools” (In Windows Vista, you will find this option under System & Maintenance) and select Local Security Policy.

You may alternatively go to the Start Menu and select “Run” (“Start Search” incase of Windows Vista). Type in “GPEdit.msc” to open the Group Policy Editor.

Expand Security Policies and then Local Securities and select Security Options.

Incase you are using GPEdit.msc, see under Local Computer Policy. You need to expand Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Security Settings and then Local Policies and select Security Options.

Now locate the policy that restricts the use of Blank/ Null Password only to console logon and set its security setting as “Disabled”.

Now that you have disabled the setting, you will be able to logon to the Remote PC’s user account with Blank/ Null Password remotely as well and the use of Blank/ Null Password will no more be restricted to console logon.

Use System Registry Trick to configure Blank/ Null Password for Logon to Remote Computer

The policy value set above is generally stored within the registry key by the name “LimitBlankPasswordUse” in Windows Vista and Windows XP. You need to unlock the restriction that prevents you from establishing connection to the remote computer by logging on without entering a password.

For doing so, you just need to fix the value data of the registry key “LimitBlankPasswordUse” to “0”

As an alternative, copy the below mentioned text and paste it into a text file. Save this file with an extension “.reg”. You now need to run this .reg file so as the merge the values to the respective system registry values.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Lsa]

“LimitBlankPasswordUse”=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]

“LimitBlankPasswordUse”=dword:00000000

Two registry files are available which help you enable or disable logon to remote computer via Blank/ Null Password.

You may download BlankPasswords.zip from the internet and unzip it to obtain EnableBlankPasswords.reg and DisableBlankPasswords.reg.

You need to simply run EnableBlankPasswords.reg incase you wish to enable or else DisableBlankPasswords.reg if you wish to disable logon to remote computer via blank password.

You may use this trick with 32-bit as well as 64-bit operating systems.